


Baby Steps

by Ladybug_21



Series: Growing Pains [2]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, Working Mums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 07:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25347154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladybug_21/pseuds/Ladybug_21
Summary: Jocelyn is faced with the realisation that being a working parent inevitably means missing some milestones.
Relationships: Jocelyn Knight/Maggie Radcliffe, Maggie Radcliffe & Olly Stevens, Sharon Bishop & Jocelyn Knight
Series: Growing Pains [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1836136
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32





	Baby Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Morla for throwing a prompt suggestion out there that was too interesting not to doodle! Per the rest of this series, Maggie and Jocelyn are assumed to be about 20 years younger here than in canon (so, in their forties circa the Joe Miller trial). I honestly haven't thought through the ramifications of that age difference, and since this is an AU, I'm honestly not going to bother, so please nobody question how Sharon was Jocelyn's junior, once upon a time, when they're basically the same age in this story?
> 
> As always, I own no rights to _Broadchurch_.

Maggie hadn't had time to read a book for fun in god only knew how long, and she felt that she royally deserved to treat herself, given how hectic the past few months had been. It wasn't as if Jocelyn would ever mind if Maggie decided to take an hour or two to read by herself, but Maggie wanted to _interact_ with Jocelyn, whenever they were in the same space. Given that the barrister was up in London for the week, though, Maggie had no qualms whatsoever about passing her spare time antisocially. She had just put the baby down for a nap and was gratefully curling up on the sofa with a cup of tea and a novel, when her mobile rang.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, hi, Maggie?"

The apologetic tone of Olly's voice made Maggie sit up straight.

"Everything all right?" she asked, already worried.

"Erm, we might have a problem," Olly admitted.

"Could you be just a _touch_ less specific, Oliver?" Maggie asked caustically, setting her novel on the coffee table and leaning forward with her free hand rubbing her temple.

"We... might be facing a lawsuit for libel, but it's a bit more complicated than that?"

Maggie could just imagine the sheepish grimace on Olly's face. _Oh, dear god_ , she groaned internally. So much for spending the next hour or two submerged in fiction and oblivious to the rest of the world.

"It seemed like something that we should discuss sooner rather than later," Olly finished awkwardly. "In person, if at all possible."

"Jesus," Maggie muttered. "All right, Olly. I'm single-parenting this week, and I only _just_ got Jules to quiet down, and I do _not_ want to deal with a tired baby later this evening, on top of whatever it is you're about to tell me. Can you come straight over?"

"Yeah." Olly cleared his throat slightly. "Maggie, I'm really sorry."

"Olly, are you deliberately trying to fray my nerves to tatters before I even know what happened?"

"Right, heading over now."

Maggie hung up, tossed her phone onto the coffee table on top of her abandoned novel, and grumpily lay down on the sofa with her face in a pillow. Trust something of this magnitude of shittiness to happen at work during the first full week since Jules was born that Jocelyn was staying in London; without being able to trade off sitting up with the baby when he refused to go to sleep, Maggie was already that much more exhausted and irritable about everything. She tried taking a few deep breaths, but halfway through her fifth (or was it her sixth? she really was rubbish at keeping count), the baby began fussing in the other room. With a sigh, Maggie dragged herself off the sofa. It seemed that, even if Olly hadn't called, she wouldn't have gotten much reading done, anyway.

Jules was still fussing when Olly arrived some twenty minutes later, but at least the young reporter's appearance was interesting enough that the baby was temporarily distracted. He smiled at Olly, enthusiastically waving his chubby arms from where he was balanced on Maggie's hip.

"Hi, Jules!" said Olly, grinning back. He reached out a hand for the baby's flailing fists to grab, but Maggie swatted at Olly's arm.

"No playing with the baby until you fill me in on everything that's happened," she informed him, stepping back so that he could come inside. "So, what's this all about?"

"Oh, right." Olly sighed. "So, you know that article we did, on the fishing supply company that was retaliating against its workers who were trying to unionise?"

"Yeah?" Maggie plopped Jules down on a blanket on the floor and sat down on the sofa next to Olly. "We triple-checked our references before we published that article, didn't we?"

"We did," Olly confirmed. "But I just got a call from the smug kid who runs the place, Leo Humphries."

"Ugh." Maggie made a face. She and Olly had tacitly agreed that Leo Humphries was possibly the least-pleasant person on the planet; he was vying with Susan Wright for last place at the bottom of Maggie's very long and constantly growing list of unpleasantries. "All right, so he called and said what? Not like he's going to win in court, all of the evidence is on our side."

"Yeah, I know." Olly scowled. "But of course he was trying to act like we were on shaky ground, and... he just _riled_ me, Maggie. Didn't help that I already thought he was a little shit—"

" _Olly_ ," Maggie scolded him, jerking her head towards the baby crawling about a few feet away.

"He can't understand, he's too little," Olly pointed out.

"I don't care, no swearing in front of my son." Maggie braced herself slightly. "All right, so Leo Humphries was being himself, and you responded by...?"

"Erm," Olly blushed, "I _may_ have implied that Jocelyn would be representing _The Echo_ in court, if he brought a case against us."

Maggie assumed that she looked as livid as she felt, because Olly immediately quailed.

"You did _what_?!" Maggie half-shouted, loudly enough that Jules looked up in alarm at his mummy.

"Look, I realised just how stupid it was, about five seconds after I slammed the phone down..."

"I'll say!" Maggie seethed. It was bad enough that Olly had taken it upon himself to make a legal response on behalf of _her_ newspaper, but the fact that he had inadvertently dragged Jocelyn into this made things ten times worse.

"I didn't _mean_ to, Maggie!" Olly insisted. "It just sort of slipped out. She's the most terrifying barrister I can imagine, and..."

"Oh, thanks a lot," scoffed Maggie.

"The most terrifying _barrister_ ," Olly attempted to clarify, clearly forgetting that Jocelyn considered herself just as much a barrister outside of the courthouse as in, and also eliding over the fact that he was just as scared of her sans wig as with. "It seemed to shut Leo Humphries up, at any rate, he knows she'd trounce anyone that he could find."

Maggie was slightly mollified, but only slightly. She crossed her arms with a huff.

"Well, I'm afraid you're just gonna have to eat humble pie, petal. Jocelyn's up to her ears in cases already, as it is, and I am _not_ putting a frivolous suit like this on her plate, on top of everything else. See if Ben's available, tell him I'll cook him dinner as a thank you if he'll do it..."

"Okay, but listen, Maggie," Olly pleaded. "I told you that my last interview went really well, didn't I? And normally, I'd be happy to walk back what I said, but if it somehow got around that I'd been speaking, er, not exactly with your permission..."

 _Then you'd only have yourself to blame_ , Maggie thought, fuming. Unfortunately, though, she could see Olly's point. And she _knew_ how much her idiotic protégé wanted to escape Broadchurch for the wider world. Jocelyn wouldn't be happy to hear that Olly had volunteered her to represent Maggie's paper (would there be conflicts of interest to take into account, in the first place?) but Maggie couldn't quite bring herself to imperil the next big step in Olly's career, simply because he had been goaded into a rash comment by a git like Leo Humphries.

"Right," Maggie sighed. "Look, if Jocelyn doesn't want to do it, she's not going to do it, Olly."

"But you'll talk to her?" Olly asked, his face flooding with relief.

"Don't say I never do anything for you," Maggie replied, quirking half a smile at Olly.

Olly, beaming, threw his arms around Maggie.

"You're the best, you know that, right?"

"I certainly do, petal," Maggie replied. "Look, with any luck, Leo Humphries is much more bark than bite, and he won't end up bringing anything against us, for all his threats. That'd solve everyone's problems nicely, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," grinned Olly. Upon hearing Jules gurgling, he glanced over towards the baby. "Yeah, wouldn't it, Jules? Have I earned the right to pick him up now, Maggie? Maggie?"

But Maggie was no longer paying attention to Olly. Instead, she was staring breathlessly at Jules, who had somehow pulled himself up to his feet using the edge of the coffee table and was slowly figuring out how to make his way around its perimeter on unsteady legs.

* * *

"Damn it," ranted Sharon during a break in the trial, "we should have _anticipated_ that they'd have the step-dad testify. Why didn't we prepare for that?!"

"We haven't lost yet," Jocelyn reminded the other barrister, although she was equally annoyed by her and Sharon's lack of foresight. They certainly weren't living up to their stellar QC reputations, at this precise moment, and since Jocelyn was sleeping better in London than she had for the past eight months in Broadchurch, she couldn't even blame fatigue for such carelessness. "Let's see how the jury reacts to the sister when we put her in the box, before we change tactics entirely."

"Yeah." Sharon sighed. "You're right, it might all be fine. I just really hate realising that I've missed important little things like this, you know?"

Jocelyn nodded and checked her phone. She had missed four calls from Maggie while in court.

"Do you mind?" she asked Sharon, and when Sharon shook her head, Jocelyn took a few steps away and returned Maggie's call.

"Everything all right?" she said when Maggie picked up.

"Do you want the good news or the less-good news first?" Maggie asked giddily.

"Er...?" said Jocelyn.

"Well, you're getting the good news first!" Maggie informed her. "Sending you videos and photos right now, didn't want to do so until I had you on the line and could hear your reaction..."

Jocelyn pulled her phone away from her ear so that she could see the texts that Maggie was sending her. She opened a photo of Maggie crouching behind Jules, an enormous grin on her face. Jocelyn blinked. Jules was _standing_ , his hands pressing down on the surface of the coffee table, a very self-satisfied expression on his little face.

"When did this happen?" she asked, putting the phone back to her ear. "And who was taking photos for you?"

"Oh, Olly came by to discuss something work-related—that's the less-good news, but it might be a non-issue, ultimately," Maggie said dismissively. "He only just left, I wouldn't let him go until he'd documented everything to my satisfaction. Point being, petal, we might have to think about toddler-proofing the house, when you get back. He even took a few steps along the side of the coffee table!"

"I see." Jocelyn was suddenly very worried that she was about to uncharacteristically burst into tears. "Well, I should get back to court, but keep an eye on him, and I'll see you soon, all right?"

"Of course! Call me when you have a chance, so we can discuss the other issue? But don't worry about it too much, really. And good luck!"

Sharon quirked her head quizzically as Jocelyn rejoined her. The younger barrister was leaning against a wall of the courthouse, smoking somewhat moodily.

"That was quick," she commented. "We still have a few minutes, you know."

Jocelyn nodded, not looking at Sharon. When Sharon offered her a cigarette, Jocelyn shook her head.

"Jocelyn?" Sharon frowned. "Not bad news, I hope?"

"Quite the contrary," said Jocelyn with a slightly bitter smile. "Jules just took his first steps. Maggie's beside herself with excitement."

"Well, congratulations! That's a big milestone. She sent video, I hope?"

Jocelyn nodded, then exhaled a long sigh. Sharon watched her for a moment, then stubbed out her cigarette.

"Look, I know it's tough, not being there for everything," she told Jocelyn. "Believe me, I've been in your shoes before. I missed Jonah's first steps, too."

"I hope you're not about tell me that that was my fault?" said Jocelyn miserably, guiltily reflecting back on all of the times she hadn't let Sharon leave chambers early enough to have dinner with her son.

"It can be hard to understand just how big these little things feel, if it's not your kid," Sharon replied generously. "But at least it's so easy to capture it all using mobile cameras these days, isn't it? It's not quite the same as being there in person, but it's still something."

Jocelyn crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall next to Sharon.

"Do you regret it?" she asked quietly.

"Some parts of it, yeah." Sharon shrugged. "But I would have regretted things either way, you know. Sure, I'll always wish that I'd been there for some of those milestones that I missed as Jonah was growing up. But if I'd stopped practising until Jonah was older, found a less demanding job to pay the rent in the interim, I'd have missed working on some cases that truly changed my life. You knew me well enough back then to know that, if my career hadn't been equally important to me, I would have dropped it all without hesitation for my son's sake."

"And he doesn't resent it, your missing some of the important little things?" Jocelyn asked anxiously.

"Hardly," laughed Sharon. "I mean, he was never _thrilled_ when I had to work such long hours that I missed his bedtime multiple times per week. But as he got older, I think he could see how much my work meant to me. And, of course, whenever I wasn't working on the weekends, I spent all of my time with him, positively lavished him with attention. He never had any doubt about how much his mum loved him, is my point. And neither will Jules, when he's old enough to appreciate just how much you wish you could be in two places at once. Besides, at least he'll always have one of his mums at home in Broadchurch to tuck him in at night."

Jocelyn nodded, looking slightly less despondent. Sharon gently put a hand on her shoulder.

"You have every right to be disappointed that you missed your boy's first steps, Jocelyn," she said quietly. "But I _promise_ you that, in the long run, it doesn't really matter. He won't remember today, after all. But he _will_ remember all of the times that you'll be there for him in the future, sticking by him step by step through all of the problems that he can't solve on his own. And that's what's really important, when it comes down to it."

Jocelyn smiled gratefully at Sharon, who smiled back and then pulled out another cigarette for herself.

"I can handle any future arguments for this case, by the way, if it's appealed," Sharon added as she lit up. "And I know how much you love being in the courtroom, Jocelyn, but believe me, the Old Bailey's not going anywhere. If you want to spend the next few years in Broadchurch instead of in London, no one's going to judge you for it. You'll still be doing the work, even if remotely, and you'll be able to come right back to it all in person, when you're ready."

"Well, how can I resist, when you put it that way?" Jocelyn said with a slight laugh. She knew that things were _slightly_ more complicated than Sharon had presented them—not least that she might well go a bit mad if kept out of a physical courtroom for too long—but at least the option was now out there for her consideration. "Don't mention the possibility to Maggie, though, not until I've had time to think it through properly. I suspect that, on some level, she's just as annoyed as I am that Olly Stevens somehow is present for milestones that I'm missing."

Sharon almost managed to suppress her smirk and Jocelyn resisted rolling her eyes—she had somehow forgotten for a moment exactly why Sharon would remember Olly Stevens so clearly.

"Fair enough," Sharon conceded, and then she checked the time. "We should go back in. But you'll let me see some of the videos of little Jules after court ends today, won't you?"

And Jocelyn nodded her agreement as she and her former pupil stepped back into the courthouse.

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, for those of you who have never read any of my other fics involving these character dynamics, I basically refer to Olly and Sharon in my head respectively as "Maggie's Stupid Journalist Son" and "Jocelyn's Rebellious Lawyer Teenager." So, make of it what you will that I've now basically written fic about Maggie and Jocelyn dealing with both their canon proxy kids and their OC actual kid simultaneously.


End file.
